Kylie Kis has her eyes firmly set on a real estate prize – she wants to make a name for herself as one of the country’s best female auctioneers.
She knows it won’t be easy.
After all, there’s not too many female auctioneers in real estate in Australia, but that only makes her more determined to succeed.
And she’s got a clear, defined reason for doing so.
“The biggest reason is, I’m doing it for my girls,” Kylie says.
“I want to show them that anything’s possible from a female perspective.”
If The Agency property partner also inspires other female real estate agents to become auctioneers along the way, Kylie says that can only be a good thing.
Over the years, she’s looked up to a range of real estate auctioneers, such as Damien Cooley, but was always left wondering and wishing where the girls were.
“I’d always loved the home renovation shows but I used to sit there and ask, ‘Where’s the female auctioneers’?” Kylie recalls.
Joining The Agency
With five years of real estate experience behind her, Kylie opted to join The Agency in the Sunshine Coast suburb of Forest Glen, just a few weeks back, and said one of the things that immediately drew her to the brand was CEO Matt Lahood’s enthusiastic response when she revealed she wanted to move into the auctioneering space.
She said while others in the industry hadn’t been as helpful, Matt was immediately excited.
“When I was in the interview with Matt Lahood, Steve Carroll and Dan Smith was there too, I said ‘One of my passions is to step into the auctioneering space,’ and Matt immediately turned around and said, ‘I’m going to get Damien Cooley to coach and mentor you’,” Kylie says.
“Unbeknownst to Matt, Damien Cooley was my auctioneer idol. I like his style and the way he runs his auctions.”
Kylie, who already has two licences that allow to auction everything from property to cattle, to timber and even charity auctions, has already had a couple of sessions with Damien and has even sent him footage to analyse of her first ever auction.
The first auction
But, if you think that first auction was a property, you’d be wrong.
“I auctioned 31 lots of timber at the Maleny Wood Expo,” Kylie says.
“And I sold 29 of them.”
Kylie says she scored the gig as she and her husband own and operate a timber manufacturing business.
On the last day of the three-day expo, Kylie’s husband asked her if she’d do the auction and without a second thought she said, ‘Yes, let’s do it!”
“You wouldn’t have recognised me as I wasn’t in a real estate outfit but a big Akubra hat, steel capped boots and my jeans,” she recalls.
“But it was a nice entry into the auctioneering world because it was such a non-pretentious show.
“An hour before the auction was booked we had no registered bidders and then, all of a sudden, 30 minutes prior to the auction they all came from everywhere.”
After the auction, Kylie says the praise came in thick and fast for her efforts, but she was most proud that she appeared to have inspired a couple of other ladies in the crowd.
“I was approached by a couple of women afterwards who had no idea of my background or that it was my first auction, who said, ‘Gosh, it was so amazing to watch you’,” she says.
“That meant everything (to me).”
Kylie says her first real estate auction is scheduled for August 12 and while she’s nervous, she also hopes her previous history as a standup comedian will stand her in good stead.
Both in terms of not being nervous in front of a crowd and in getting the atmosphere at the auction right.
“For me personally, to make 300 people laugh is a big thing, and I don’t think it can get any harder than that,” she says.
The road to real estate
Kylie says her path into real estate came slowly.
Before living in Forest Glen on the Sunshine Coast, Kylie, her husband and their two daughters called Sydney home.
While they were there Kylie was approached to move into real estate but she felt her two daughters were too young and she didn’t have the time to commit to what she knew was a busy career.
Instead, she helped her husband expand the timber business, which saw them move to Forest Glen and she also completed an executive Masters in Business Administration in 2019.
Then, when real estate opportunities came knocking again about five years ago, Kylie knew the time was right to follow that path and she hasn’t looked back.
She says her approach to real estate is a simple one.
“I put people before profit,” Kylie says.
“I try to follow what I’ve taught my daughters, which is to just be a good person in the community.
“Be honest, be real and be authentic.”
